How To Avoid Feeling Guilty After Eating and Drinking Your Feelings
When the weekend arrives, we often find it harder to stay on track of our exercise and healthy eating. We may be going out for food and eat more than we should, or meet friends for a drink which you results in you staggering home after several bottles of wine and a kebab, or maybe you’ve had a busy, stressful week and see the weekend as a chance to relax and enjoy.
One of my ladies recently put a very honest post about her weekend. She hadn’t been feeling the best due to sickness. She had to cancel plans and stay at home to recover. Naturally, like us all, this made her feel down in the dumps, and as she put it “I 100% ate and drank my feelings”. She felt guilty about the treats, but the best part for me in her post was:
“I’m not going to let it roll on though and undo all the good I’ve done already”
Thinking Positively to Stay on Track of Your Weight Loss Goals
This is the #1 thing that anybody wanting to lose weight must remember. One bad meal, one day, or even one bad week doesn’t mean you have failed, just the same as a few workouts or salad doesn’t give you instant results (annoyingly!).
When you’ve been working hard on changing your habits and then suddenly fall off-track, it can be difficult and demotivating, making it a struggle to get back on track and back into your healthy habits.
Is Falling off the Wagon Such a Bad Thing?
Having a day with a piece of chocolate cake & toffee nut latte, 3 glasses of wine and 2 mince pies (just some of my favourite) may not be ideal for weight loss. Although, in the long run, a little timeout can help rev up your energy, boost your willpower, and ignite your motivation to take on another week of staying on track with your healthy habits. I’m sure days like these don’t happen very often for you but if you get a day were: your’re feeling unwell and need comfort, healthy food planning went out the window and your grabbed the easier option instead, or your friends invited you out and you decided to stay drinking all night, the main thing is to see it for what it is and move on.
5 Simple Ways to Get Back on Track of Your Weight Loss Goals
Here are some tips to help you have a healthy response to those over-indulgent days and not let them sabotage your weight loss efforts and get back on track of your fitness journey.
- Keep working on it – one ‘bad day’ doesn’t need to turn into a bad week or month. Get back on it as soon as you can.
- Look in your diary for the rest of the month and plan when you’ll indulge so you can look forward to it. Maybe you have a party coming up, or a night out with friends. You can plan and accept you are likely to indulge on days like these, you can then focus on staying organised and on track around them.
- The day after you’ve indulged, plan healthy meals. Don’t think “oh, I ate too much last night, I’m now going starve myself today.” This is a recipe for disaster and will only leave you hungry, likely to binge, and feel like you’re on an emotional roller coaster, making you miserable develop a “whats the point” attitude.
- Plan a good workout. If you know you’re going out with friends and will have a few drinks, make sure you do a workout that day. At least you’ll have burned some extra energy, and if you have a fuzzy head the next day you can rest or plan your workout for the next day.
- Don’t feel guilty, make sure you make memories and enjoy celebrations and special occasions. Don’t punish yourself because you had a dessert or more drinks than planned. We all do it. It’s part of enjoying life. A healthy balanced lifestyle includes your favourite food and drink as well as the healthy food.
Why It’s Important to Indulge Now and Then
We all feel proud of ourselves when we avoid goodies or do a workout instead of binge watching Netflix. Being disciplined and committed is great and shows we believe in ourselves enough to reach our goals. However, relaxing and enjoying should also feel good, which is why we shouldn’t let weight loss get in the way of it. So, look at the month ahead and plan when you will allow yourself to indulge, you can then focus on your weight loss goals around those days. It’s all part of the balance of being healthy.